`Ageing in Society brings forth exciting new questions, fresh perspectives, and a necessary critical approach to key issues - this is indeed an authoritative introduction. The authors not only have made significant contributions to gerontology, but offer the reader considerations for what could be, not just what is, the design of old age in society. The book will inform students in ways that so many texts in the area, satisfied with comfortable bromides, do not′ - Jaber Gubrium, Editor of Journal of Aging Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia `This completely revised Third Edition of Ageing in Society presents one of the most comprehensive pictures of ageing today. Emphasising the dual processes of ageing societies and the experience of ageing, the book offers the reader - student or researcher alike - cogent discussions of the most up to date perspectives and evidence available. The contributors are all leading experts in their fields - comprising a range of important disciplines as they apply to ageing. Ageing in Society is a cutting edge text on one of the most important subjects facing the modern world - a must for all students of ageing′ - Mike Bury, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, University of London `The Third Edition of the comprehensive textbook Ageing in Society extends its scope to include continental Europe, allowing broader as well as deeper insights into recent trends in gerontology. Gerontologists and practitioners are urged not to stop reading before they have reached the insightful last chapter "Ageing into the future"!′ - Professor Dorly Deeg, Editor-in-Chief European Journal of Ageing The Third Edition of this popular and widely-used text provides a comprehensive introduction to the study of ageing, exploring the key theories, concepts and methods which the behavioural and social sciences contribute to the subject. Thoroughly revised and updated, Ageing in Society reflects new trends in gerontology, incorporating recent developments in theory and research as well as major international and interdisciplinary perspectives. A new chapter on cognitive ageing has been added and key themes, such as social protection, retirement, health and illness, and cultural images of old age are also critically examined. Ageing in Society was developed by the British Society of Gerontology to fulfil the need for an authoritative introduction to social gerontology. As such, it is an ideal resource for students and lecturers in the social and behavioural sciences, as well as for students and practitioners in health and social care.

SHARE is an international survey designed to answer the societal challenges that face us due to rapid population ageing. How do we Europeans age? How will we do economically, socially and healthwise? How are these domains interrelated? The authors of this multidisciplinary book have taken a further big step towards answering these questions based on the recent SHARE data in order to support policies for an inclusive society.

Old age is a part of the lifecycle about which there are numerous myths and stereotypes. To present an overstatement of commonly held beliefs, the old are portrayed as dependent individuals, characterized by a lack of social autonomy, unloved and neglected by both their immediate family and friends; and posing a threat to the living standards of younger age groups by being a 'burden' that consumes without producing. Older people are perceived as a single homogeneous group, and the experiment of ageing characterized as being the same for all individuals, irrespective of the diversity of their circumstances before the onset of old age. In this book, detailed statistical material is used to portray the circum stances of older people in modern society in an attempt to evaluate the appropriateness (or otherwise) of the major stereotypes of later life. This volume does not address ageing from a psychological or micro-social per spective. In particular, we do not explore major issues relating to old age. Rather we feel that, from the extensive collection of surveys concerned with the elderly, we can provide a context within which individual eld erly people can be studied from more anthropological or biographical perspectives.

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Ageing is widely recognised as one of the social and economic challenges in the contemporary, globalised world, for which scientific, technological and medical solutions are continuously sought. This book proposes that science and technology also played a crucial role in the creation and transformation of the ageing society itself. Drawing on existing work on science, technology and ageing in sociology, anthropology, history of science, geography and social gerontology, Science, Technology and the Ageing Society explores the complex, interweaving relationship between expertise, scientific and technological standards and social, normatively embedded age identities. Through a series of case studies focusing on older people, science and technology, medical research about ageing and ageing-related illnesses, and the role of expertise in the management of ageing populations, Moreira challenges the idea that aging is a problem for the individual and society. Tracing the epistemic and technological infrastructures that underpin multiple of ways of aging, this timely volume is a crucial tool for undergraduate and graduate students interested in social gerontology, health and social care, sociology of aging, science and technology studies and medical sociology.

COVID-19 has brought unprecedented challenges in the care of older adults. During the first surge of the pandemic, governments all over the world struggled with high disease severity and increased mortality among older adults. This work documents the impact of the pandemic by collating information from different countries and by synthesizing inputs from several knowledge domains—Sociology, Gerontology, Geriatrics, Medicine and Public Health. The impact on older adults is examined primarily with respect to three main issues—pervasive ageism, spread of infections in care homes worldwide, and the unintended harm of public health measures on geriatric population in different care settings. The complex tensions between epidemic control and the need to respond to social and economic imperatives are investigated with respect to disadvantaged and vulnerable older adults. The book also critically examines international ageing policies with the intention of identifying gaps in pandemic response in particular, and approaches to older adult care in general. In the light of the evidence presented, lessons are drawn which might improve aged care and strengthen emergency preparedness. Finally, considering the evolving nature of the pandemic, new international responses to older adult care and pandemic management are presented as an epilogue. It is anticipated that the book would help nourish critical thinking and implement new solutions to older care during and beyond the pandemic

The ageing of the world’s population is one of the major achievements of modern society. By 2050, an estimated 2 billion people will be aged 60 years or over. However, ageing poses major challenges and this is especially true for the field of ophthalmology, given that the major eye diseases – age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and cataract – predominantly affect the elderly. The challenges facing ophthalmology in an ageing society have not previously been addressed in a comprehensive way, although there are common denominators of the various eye diseases that affect the elderly. This book provides such a comprehensive overview encompassing epidemiology, risk factors, current treatment and prophylaxis, disability, co-morbidity, and the impact on quality of life. World leaders in their respective fields provide state-of-the-art knowledge on the geriatric aspects of ophthalmology that will help to improve the management of this growing patient population.

This open access book attends to the co-creation of digital public services for ageing societies. Increasingly public services are provided in digital form; their uptake however remains well below expectations. In particular, amongst older adults the need for public services is high, while at the same time the uptake of digital services is lower than the population average. One of the reasons is that many digital public services (or e-services) do not respond well to the life worlds, use contexts and use practices of its target audiences. This book argues that when older adults are involved in the process of identifying, conceptualising, and designing digital public services, these services become more relevant and meaningful. The book describes and compares three co-creation projects that were conducted in two European cities, Bremen and Zaragoza, as part of a larger EU-funded innovation project. The first part of the book traces the origins of co-creation to three distinct domains, in which co-creation has become an equally important approach with different understandings of what it is and entails: (1) the co-production of public services, (2) the co-design of information systems and (3) the civic use of open data. The second part of the book analyses how decisions about a co-creation project’s governance structure, its scope of action, its choice of methods, its alignment with strategic policies and its embedding in existing public information infrastructures impact on the process and its results. The final part of the book identifies key challenges to co-creation and provides a more general assessment of what co-creation may achieve, where the most promising areas of application may be and where it probably does not match with the contingent requirements of digital public services. Contributing to current discourses on digital citizenship in ageing societies and user-centric design, this book is useful for researchers and practitioners interested in co-creation, public sector innovation, open government, ageing and digital technologies, citizen engagement and civic participation in socio-technical innovation.

Creating Spaces for an Ageing Society considers the existing social science literature on shared neighbourhood spaces through the perspective of an ageing population. It asks the question; how can we use social infrastructure to build local neighbourhoods that are supportive of the social relationships we need in later life?